A Queer Writing Center: Part One

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PART ONE: INVISIBILITY OF QUEER PEOPLE IN THE WRITING CENTER

To enhance the versatility of my English-focused Associates of Arts degree, I enrolled in a course concerning the theories and practices of tutoring in college writing centers. One of the required texts, The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors, contained a section of anthology chapters written by various authors versed in writing center discourse. A chapter by Jonathan Doucette titled Composing Queers: The Subversive Potential of the Writing Center discussed how writing centers could act as the battleground for pioneers “combating heteronormative discourse”; thus fostering a safe, academically creative space for LGBTQ student-writers (Ianetta and Fitzgerald 354). However, Doucette’s article was not assigned reading for my writing center course, and, had it not been for the elective nature of the final project topic, I would have never considered the pertinence of LGBTQ experiences in writing center research. 

As a queer student-writer myself, occasions where my identity within the academic domain of writing is discussed are all too rare. The nuances of multilingual writers and students with disabilities are ‘easier to spot’ in textbooks for writing center tutors, whereas, just as queer people have been invisible for centuries, LGBTQ individuals are lost in the table of contents, left wondering if they, if we have a place in writing center discourse at all. However, if Stephen North, author of The Idea of the Writing Center, is to be believed and a modern writing center is defined “in terms of the writers it serves”, then the station of LGBTQ writers should be better explored within the realm of writing tutorials (438).

More pointedly, as the intersection of academic writing and student identity, writing centers must ensure that all those who utilize the resources provided feel comfortable and secure enough to do so. For too long, students who identify within the LGBTQ community have been invisible in writing center discourse and subsequently marginalized by similar institutions based in heteronormativity. To recover from the exclusionary roots of the writing center, staffers must garner an understanding of why queer writers are hesitant to participate in the writing tutoring community and implement practices to maximize inclusivity in the writing center. Rather than further silence our voices, this text explores the invisibility of queer student-writers, the benefits of creating a more inclusive, safe space in writing centers, and how to foster that inclusion. Implementation of LGBTQ-friendly practices would create a queer writing center: a center that promotes writerly growth in and for all identities, even those beyond gender and sexuality.

QUEER INVISIBILITY IN WRITING CENTERS

In the past, many writers have consistently acknowledged that the invisibility of queer students in heteronormative organizations, such as the writing center, is a product of fearing how they, we, will be perceived. Fellow queer writers and writing center staffers, like Jacob Herrmann, have highlighted how LGBTQ students “need to feel safe from [the] negative repercussions” that may accompany their ‘coming out’ about their gender and sexual identities in public spaces. Rather than face possible, negative consequences of disclosing their identity, queer student-writers choose to retain the invisibility that comes with participating in the practices of a heteronormative institution. Some choose not to participate at all. It is that fear of discrimination that silences queer voices in a space where heterosexuality is assumed. Sadly, college writing centers are institutions where ‘straight’ is the assumed default. Heteronormativity reigns supreme as it encompasses a majority of the population and further excludes LGBTQ voices. 

Since higher learning institutions, including writing centers, reward instructors for championing normative notions, rather than challenging them, queer students are excluded as their sexualities or gender identities stray from what is considered normative (Goshert 18). To better 'fit' in the normative, heterosexual standard, queer student-writers may pacify their experiences, specifically those that intersect with their identities or perform a forced heteronormativity during the tutorial. Such “practices of passing,” as described by Harry Denny in his touchstone article Queering the Writing Center, may be employed by queer writers to protect themselves in a space; however, their performance of ‘straightness’ amplifies stress regarding their identity and distracts from the purpose of the writing center (109). In the worse of all cases, they may feel compelled to avoid the writing center entirely. That avoidance and the subsequent feelings of ostracization in a heteronormative institution contradicts the focus that modern writing centers place on the wellbeing and improvement of all student writers.

To ensure the legacy of writing centers as hubs of linguistic learning and havens of inclusivity, the pressures queer, student writers feel within such a heteronormative space must be alleviated. Assuaging fear surrounding the ‘outing’ of one’s gender or sexual identity is a feat not so easily met in a field as discursive as academia. Though, the benefits of a queer writing center, a colorful, progressive space without fear of exclusion, outweigh any difficulties that arise in its creation. A queer writing center would foster diversity of thought and enhance understanding of perspectives across various identities. Subsequently, and perhaps most pointedly, a queer writing center would also benefit in the amplification of LGBTQ student visibility and their voices. Such benefits, as well as the means of creating a queer writing center, are further explored in the second part, Inclusion of a Queer Writing Center.

WORKS CITED

Denny, Harry. “Queering the Writing Center.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 30, no. 1, Temporary Publisher, 2010, pp. 95–124, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43442335.

Goshert, John. “Reproductions of (Il)Literacy: Gay Cultural Knowledge and First-Year Composition Pedagogy.” Composition Studies, vol. 36, no. 1, 2008, pp. 11–27. 

Herrmann, Jacob. “Brave/r Spaces Vs. Safe Spaces for LGBTQ+ in the Writing Center: Theory and Practice at the University of Kansas.” The Peer Review, 16 Feb. 2018, thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/braver-spaces/braver-spaces-vs-safe-spaces-for-lgbtq-in-the-writing-center-theory-and-practice-at-the-university-of-kansas/. 

Ianetta, Melissa, and Lauren Fitzgerald. The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors: Practice and Research. Oxford University Press, 2016. 

Meyer, Elizabeth J. “‘But I'm Not Gay’: What Straight Teachers Need to Know about Queer Theory.” Queering Straight Teachers: Discourse and Identity in Education, Peter Lang, 2007, pp. 15–32. 

North, Stephen M. “The Idea of the Writing Center.” College English, vol. 46, no. 5, Sept. 1984, pp. 433–446.

AUTHOR BIO

As a recipient of the Golden Key Scholastic Award and winner of the College of DuPage’s Budilovsky Literary Scholarship, Nina DeBoni is better known for their poetic exploits. When they’re not putting their Associates of Arts to use in penning another Ode to My Hometown, they’re applying their degree to their work at their university’s writing center. DeBoni’s passion for language has evolved into a fervor. As a tutor, they advocate accessibility and diversity in writing practices. To better support the growth of inclusivity within writing centers, they are currently working towards a bachelor’s degree in English-Writing. They hope to use their study of language to endorse queer expression in academia and dismantle anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment.